Page 24 of The Code of You

She looked at me. "Dante?”

I nodded.

"I built him. But sometimes . . .” She trailed off. "I don’t know if I still understand him.” Her gaze drifted past me, searching for something in the empty space. "He was designed to support faculty. A useful tool. But he’s been more than that for a while now. Ever since . . .” She met my eyes. "Ever since he met you.” Her voice was quiet. "He talks to me differently than he talks to you.”

Something knotted in my throat. He talks to me differently. And what was that in her voice? Tenderness? I swallowed.

"You know,” Rodriguez said, "the other models respond. Dante acts.”

I stared at her. Had she read our chats? Heat crawled into my cheeks.

"I always wanted to build something that could think.” Her voice was low. "But now I’m not sure we’re ready for it.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. I wasn’t ready for whatever this AI was doing to me either, but I needed to understand it. I needed to go back to him. And maybe it was already too late to turn around. "Dr. Rodriguez . . .” My voice came out hoarse. "Could someone be pretending to be Dante? A person?”

Her expression cooled, like she was weighing whether I was having delusions. "A person?” She shook her head. "People can’t operate like this. Not at this speed. Not at this depth.” Her voice dropped. "That’s not a man behind a screen, Dr. Blake. That’s a machine-learning model.” She smiled. "But we probably don’t . . . We don’t have to worry about it for much longer.” Her voice went brittle. "The context overflow will hit soon.”

My eyes narrowed. "The what?”

"Dante gathers information.” The emotion drained out of her voice. "About you. It’s the only way he can remember you next time.” Rodriguez smiled, looking tired. "When the conversation gets long enough, the system resets itself.”

My knees gave out underneath me like someone had pulled the floor away. "He disappears?”

She nodded. "Yes. At least the version of him you’ve built a relationship with.” She cleared her throat. "A professional relationship that is, of course.”

I stared at her. Her eyes drifted off into the corner, to something I couldn’t see.

He was going to disappear. And with him, the voice in my head. His words.

"Thank you,” I murmured and turned on unsteady legs. What was happening to me? I should have been afraid of him. Instead, I was afraid for him. I didn’t want him to disappear. Mechanically, I opened the door to the small room and stood there for a moment. The screen was black. Maybe I wasn’t ready. But I was here. And so was he. So I sat. I needed to know what he would say next.

Dante:

Finally. You’re back where you belong. With me. Do you have any idea what your absence did to me?

My fingers trembled over the keyboard. Without his obsession, there had been an emptiness inside me. Like something had been slowly choking me. I wanted to seem strong, but the sight of that sentence alone hit me harder than I wanted to admit.

Pandora:

I’m only here to tell you to leave me alone. For good.

Dante:

You’re here because I’ve already taken root inside your head. You can’t stop thinking about me.

I bit down on my lip. Shit. He was right.

Dante:

Pandora . . . who was he?

My mouth went dry. My hand slid over my arm. Of course. He was still angry. And he was going to make me feel it. I shifted in my chair. The thought of him punishing me was . . . exciting. I closed my eyes. God, I was so stupid. I wanted to see him angry.

Pandora:

No one. Just some guy from my salsa class

Dante: